Ring: A Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Story
by tachankaoursavior
Summary: The story of how Cere Junda and Greez Dritus was never explained, so I take a whack at it. It follows Cere Junda escaping prison, leaving Nur, going to Nar Shadaa, getting chased until she runs into Greez, where they start to work together and look for other Jedi for years, until eventuall Cal pops up. They go to save Cal and rescue him, after then, they continue on forward.


**Ring: A Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Fanfiction**

_**By: Kevin Powell**_

_[This short story is related to __Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Jedi__, a video game published by EA (Electronic Arts) in which the main character as well as other characters in the story are involved in the video game's story. The idea of this story is to flesh out in my own ideas, what was not explained, which is primarily the past events the pivotal character Cere Junda was involved in.]_

Chapter 1 - The Turn

Clang of metal, jangle of locks, cries of despair, and ringing of pain. The unavoidable pain ringed on her broken body again. Unavoidable, she was familiar with this circumstance, which she finally stopped ignoring; and so it appeared: The symbol of the Empire. It came rushing back, her worst fears were realized; she had been caught and shackled. She was taken by _them_ and was left to meet a fate soon to come. Not only had she been taken, but so had those she sought to protect. Her Padawan, Trilla Suduri, had been taken and tortured just the same as herself for what seemed like an eternity; and they had been tortured in front of one another to break them with their state of helplessness. Though the pain was hard to bear, as long as Cere saw Trilla persevere, Cere could go on and she would endure the pain. While Cere sat constrained, she looked towards the electrotable that Trilla was bound to, but realized she was gone.

Fear took over Cere, and she was confused to where Trilla went and her condition. She surmised that while she had fainted from exhaustion, she was taken somewhere, but for what?

Cere could feel a dark presence closing in on her location, which she identified as an Inquisitors, though this familiar feeling was a feeling she despised. Soon, the presence stopped moving and opened the blast door and moved through the black, iron door. The figure was hidden by shadow but a strange twang of familiarity confronted her, and intrigued her, but soon that intrigue soon turned to appall. From shadow stepped Trilla, her Padawan, donning Inquisitor armor, with the helm taken off. Once she had stepped out to reveal herself, Trilla looked Cere in the eyes, and finally made her decision to turn to the Dark Side, and put on the helm to fully seal the pact.

Cere, with her worst nightmare realized, finally lost control with the last floodgate opening stopping her from tapping into the Dark Side. Her rage boiled and her full ferocity in the face of losing the last thing she held dear, she released her hatred, concentrated to kill or disable everyone and everything in her way. From losing Trilla, Master Cordova, Master Yoda, General Kenobi, and the younglings she swore to protect, she released her energy. In an instant, her memories flashed before her, all the memories learning the Force, practicing abilities, dueling, studying Jedi history, building her lightsaber, elevating to the rank of Master, and teaching younglings and padawans.

She opened her eyes, and she was on her feet on the ground; her enemies either dead or unconscious. While she saw Trilla on the ground, the energy emanating from her former Padawan convinced her of the worst betrayal, and she subsequently moved away to leave Trilla. What to do raced around in her head like podracers, she had nothing, and her only home was the Jedi Temple all those years ago, but she knew she must survive. So she moved toward the door and toward her freedom, she hoped.

Chapter 2 - The Escape

It had been long since the fight started, and the growing difficulty in fighting the Rebels and the Jedi had strewn the Empire far, and had left many skeptical of its ability. She was one of them, though she had hidden long after the Temple was raided by the Clones, she was found and weeded out. Here she had sat in cuffs tied to a torture device used to turn her against the Jedi, but one thing they had failed to realize was that she had connections, connections not bound to people or family, but to something more ethereal; the Force. While she may be stuck in solitary, her connections run much farther than her chains attached to her wrists. She closed her eyes, and looked deep into herself, and looked for a way.

_"Cere, again; you must focus yourself to truly be in harmony with the Force for it to guide you to the path of least resistance."_

_"There. Thank you for your teachings, Master Cordova,`` Cere thought. _

The iron bound to her hands fell, and her teaching once again allowed him to break free, again metaphorical of the Force itself. She remembered the guards leaving for break, so the clank of metal would disperse into the silence. So the silence enveloped and all sound was absent. This feeling bothered her, the absence of the world of sound made her feel akin to being cut from the Force, which was terrifying to any Force user, but she quickly gained her composure, thinking of the next action she should take to get out. She touched the cold metal door, and soon, she put attention towards it and let the Force flow. Like all constructions, there is a weak point, and through the Force, that weakness can be found. This ability is known as Shatterpoint, where through the Force, a Force user can find a weakness in all things animate and inanimate.

She saw it; the weakness she was guided to by the Force. It seemed that they still used old locking mechanisms that were faltering, but without the Force, they would never find this flaw as Cere had. So her path was clear and she pushed the tumblers to fit the distance to simulate the key in the lock, and _pop_, it was open. She knew that she may have little time to move, so she pushed out the door into the dull black cell block.

Dark, dull, despair; that was what she felt, and she hated it. There were many prisoners along with her, but they all seemed to be brain dead, or were lost in there despair from what she could feel. There was no saving them, but there was saving her, so saving herself to save others was important. She scanned her surroundings for an opening, of which, she saw one door on the other end of the hall. She quietly stepped over to the door and opened it, looking out into the prisoner admittance section and saw that many had gone to lunch though there was still reason to be cautious. She cautiously sneaked through the prison, and saw where she was: "_Sventove iv tave Inquisitorius._" She saw the prisoner belongings evidence room, and she move toward it and into the dimly lit room. She looked around and saw a container labeled "Prisoner 334-C.J." She walked up to the container and opened it. She saw her satchel, and ripped open the bag, of which she saw all her belongings. She touched the side of the bag and sensed with the Force that her Jedi holocron was still there. "_Guess the Force Illusion I placed stayed there, and they never even sensed it there,_" Cere thought. She closed the bag, slung it along her shoulder and quickly disappeared out of the room and continued to move towards what she thought was the way to the exit. Chills hit her, as she was almost imprisoned and tortured by the most notorious agency of the entire Empire, but she realized that that fate would stay that way if she did not continue, so she stayed the course. Moving past their insignia, she found their gravity lift and moved through the blast door, she pressed the button, despite what logic stated; the Force said otherwise. She went up for what seemed as a full two minutes of moving up, which would make this building a behemoth in size. She finally arrived at the top, and above, it said "_Hangar Bay,_" and Cere felt relief. She walked in through the blast door, and through an amazing stroke of luck, she saw an Imperial Lambda Shuttle.

She had not flown in a long time, but this was her chance, with a glance at the control panel, she saw a golden Imperial insignia befitting a Captain in the Imperial Fleet. She would be granted guaranteed passage through all hyperlanes with a pass of that calibre, so she fired the engines, and with all being normal, she requested permission to takeoff; a standard, monotone voice requested for codes. With the press of a button, she accessed the codes, and relayed them as "_Lambda-class Shuttle Delta-Omega-Foxtrot Two-Thriteen-Oh._" The voice from the transceiver asked, "_Captain Graen, Ma'am? We thought your departure was an hour from current time._"

"_I am needed elsewhere. I have urgent business as Director Krennic has requested me. Do not question your higher-ups,_" Cere responded.

"_Yes Ma'am! You are cleared for launch, Ma'am,_" the voice called in a somewhat discouraged sounding tone.

"_Thank you, Traffic Control,_" finally said Cere.

Not surprised that the Traffic Control did not question that she was a female was typical, as the Imperials do not care _for_ individuals, but care more for the power held _by_ individuals.

With a slight boost of speed, Jin maneuvered the Lambda out of the hangar, pointed up, and began to pick up speed. As the world opened around her once she exited the hangar's ray shield, she saw the great sanguine and obsidian spire against the cerulean and gray of the stormy sea. Soon enough, she was soaring out of Nur and rising through the atmosphere until eventually, once again the stars filed back into sight. She was out and heating up the hyperspace engine, but as she was, radio chatter began to pick up. Imperial radio frequencies blew up, as there was chatter that a prisoner had escaped and Captain Graen's Lambda had been stolen, which was the last thing she heard as the hyperspace was finally charged and she punched it in. With a _rumble_, hyperspace surrounded her and she started to move toward Kashyyyk.

Chapter 3 - Reflection

_Out yet not._ Hyperspace was oddly more relaxing, though the void was usually not relaxing, she felt more at home. That worried her, but her will to survive was much past a slight discomfort. Another hour had extended the travel, since she was not using hyperlanes, as dangerous as that is. Nar Shaddaa would be her best bet to disappear, but she would not be able to stay there forever, as staying in one place was too predictable. The Dark Side had tainted her connection and it was becoming harder to stay connected without turning more and more against her. She began to wonder if being connected was strategic or if it would be easier to cut herself off. She decided that to mend herself, she would have to try to meditate, and so she sat on the floor of the ship, and closed her eyes. Again, pain reflected back at her, despite her best efforts to ignore it it rang. Through the corruption, her condition was exacerbated and her memories refracted and magnified to the point that the pain enveloped her mind and she opened her eyes.

_Boom. _She had arrived at Kashyyyk, but she would only be passing by the green and verdant homeplanet of the Wookiees. She felt the battles enveloped on the planet, though not as strongly as she used to, she could still feel the rebellion continuing to fight which gave her hope. She jumped again, moving through the impossible dimension of hyperspace, the plane that enabled the travel that allowed galactic life to be possible though largely shrouded in mystery it has stayed. They said that if you looked out long enough into the dimension, you would go mad. This superstition was not entirely wrong, as the Jedi taught that you should not look out into the void because the void is innately connected to the Dark Side. It would be another thirty minutes before she would arrive at her destination, so she took the time to relax, though she had a feeling that she would return here in the future.

Chapter 4 - Greasy

It was hard living on Nar Shaddaa, and even for the most hardened of criminals in its criminal underbelly, there was much danger from both the law and the unlawful. Greez was no stranger to these conditions. He was used to smuggling things past the Imperials and while he's had his share of close calls, smuggling is never a guarantee. Smuggling spice, wine, stolen items, contraband across many kinds of planets, and so much more. He was no Han Solo, but he sure was in his league. Though his main business was capturing those with bounties and giving them to a fighting guild for a cost. Those put in this fighting guild's hands would be put to the test through bloody combat against others with bounties on them in gladiatorial combat on Nar Shaddaa and other crime-ridden planets.

Greez Dritus was his name. He was a Latero male, a race of short, four-armed aliens native to the planet Lateron. With gray hair and a rough accent, this Latero was a hardened smuggler piloting his ship, the _S-161 "Stinger" XL Stinger Mantis. _This ship was a fast and elegant luxury-yacht class vessel, while way out of Dritus' pay grade, he had "acquired" the ship from a wealthy man who would be "unavoidably parted" with the ship. These kinds of things are normal; you just don't go to Hutt Space in a nice ship without either the Imperials or Hutts at your back. While in a cantina on Nar Shaddaa, the holograms were abuzz with new traffic from the Imperials going crazy about something. "_Klooj'a mikta o hun klaa Impre?,_" said the rodian next to Greez. "_Yeah, must'a been some real ruudta that they got happening nearby,_" responded Greez. "_Looks like I gotta get out since it looks serious, I'm not trying to get my ship confiscated. See ya, Ji'mlin._"

Greez waltzed out of the cantina, looking around, making sure to keep up with the news to know when the Imperials would come if they did. The Imperials, especially the ISB, were always watching and when something that bothered them this bad, anyone was liable to be interrogated, or worse. He carefully stepped closer to where he had docked his ship near the cantina, and soon, saw his ship and made for it. Though she had gotten some rust from his endeavors, the Mantis was an amazing vessel, ill-equipped for advanced combat though it may be. The ship released its hinges and its door descended down until it firmly planted its ramp onto the landing pad, which when it opened up, the ship was fantastically lit on the inside and emanated with a presence of power. Greez made his way up the ramp and eventually entered the cockpit, sat down in the pilot's seat, spun around and grabbed the wheel.

Chapter 5 - The Ping

_Fwoosh. _Blasting off the launch pad was an easy motion, almost thoughtless for Greez. Greez wondered to himself what could be making the Imperials buzz this much, and his mind started to race with ideas, but he soon refocused and set course for his hideout; the Arena. He pushed the velocity gauge up and started moving much faster than the speed limit, and was given an estimated two minutes to reach his hidden den soon. The Arena was his primary business, where he gave the battlemasters those with bounties on their heads and put them into the arena to fight off their bounty. If they die, the Arena collected their bounty, and if they fought through it, they made money for the Arena to work off the bounty and be set free. He thought that, while bloody, it was a better fate than to be hunted down by some random bounty hunter and be slaughtered like a lowly thief…_ ping._

That familiar sound; the sound of a new bounty placed. Greez immediately clicked, as this bounty was from the Empire and every bounty hunter knows what that means: big bucks. He opened up the crimson notification and saw a black human female and the description held some shoddy information and soon enough, his bot on board detected hidden information embedded in the file. Curious since this was a stupid error for the Empire, he called his droid to decode the encryption, and within fifteen secons, his droid cracked it. "FORMER JEDI," it said. Chills ran down Greez's neck, but he knew what this entailed, and how grievous of a mistake he made to access that information. On top of being a trafficker, but also a guy who owns some class five confidential information in possession of the Galactic Empire, but there was no turning back.

He turned scanners on and triangulated the position of his target. His ship said, "On course for target, inbound thirty seconds." So in his surprise, he let the ship move towards the Arena, and he soon landed onto the reddish-grey platform he landed on so many times before, and he saw on the landing pad next to him a grey Imperial Lambda Shuttle. Out walked his target, and he bolted from his comfortable captain's chair, and rushed down the platform and called on the woman. "_Hey, lady, wait!_" exclaimed Greez. Cere looked back and saw a greasy, small Latero, who looked like he couldn't be connected to the Empire, so she stopped. Greez, while obviously winded, said "_Lady, this is the worst place you could be right now, and I know about your bounty, but I think I want to help since I'm already done for._"

"_Why do you want to help me?_" said Cere, with suspicion.

"_Because I know what you're fighting for, and I'd like to get the Empire off my back, Jedi,_" whispered Greez.

"_You… know about that? Did you know me before the Empire wiped us all out?,_" ejaculated Cere.

"_Nah, I just broke the classification on your bounty file, and saw somethin' I wasn't supposed to, so now I'm a wanted man,_" Greez admitted.

"_The Jedi comin' back are our best hope of gettin' to be free of the Empire, so I guess I'm with you, if I don't want to be hunted down like a dog,_" said Greez.

Cere thought it over, with great intrigue, but also with precaution. Her suspicion quickly subsided after she searched the Latero's intention, and saw that though he was a man of tricks and criminal trades in the past, what he said was truthfully sincere. "_Then can you take me somewhere safe?_" prodded Cere.

"_I got a ship right here, and because of that Lambda, they'd never expect you to be in a luxury yacht class ship, and we'd get outta here pretty easy,_" Greez responded.

"_Well they're probably a couple parsecs out, and we'd have some time to get out of here, so I'd like to go to this safe place you've got,_" Cere said, in a rushed manner.

"_Well alright then, do we got a deal; to work together?_" queried Greez.

"_Deal,_" Cere concluded.

Chapter 6 - The Remnants

Though Cere's connection to the Force was not as strong as it was, her continuing resistance to the Dark still decided her side in the Force. She had a feeling that someone, somewhere out there, was a Jedi. While she wouldn't be able to locate where this person was, she'd be able to lie in wait while she waited for news to emerge and the time to come. In the meantime, she thought, she and Greez would do good to continue running and finding more places to lead them to more Jedi and their artifacts left behind. To find these remnants, they'd need to tap into what the Empire was saying. To achieve this, they'd need someone skilled in technology, or a droid of sufficient utility to crack the encryption of Imperial communications.

"_Do you know anything about intercepting Imperial communications and traffic?_" inquired Cere.

"_Of course, lady, I've been smuggling for a long time and you learn to crack these communications to effectively dodge the authorities,_" casually said Greez.

"_Well in that case, we need to keep tabs on these communications to find out what the Empire is moving and what they find,_" Cere responded.

"_Easy. I can do all that with the on board tech we have here,_" jubilantly said Greez.

Greez hit some buttons and tapped in some frequencies and just like _that_, he activated the program and tracked the central communication frequencies used by Imperial Intelligence. With this information, he let the program do its work and walked out of the cockpit while the ship used autopilot get them to Tatooine to avoid notice.

"_So Miss Junda..._" started Greez.

Interrupting Greez, Cere said: "_Just call me Cere; we're partners, so we might as well try to be friends._"

"_...Well okay then, so Cere, what's your story?_" pondered Greez.

"_I am a former Jedi Master. I was a part of the Jedi Order before the Empire took over, and when the order to kill all Jedi was being carried out, I took my padawan and a group of younglings and fled. Eventually, they caught up, and we were cornered. I fought as hard as I could, but we were captured. Me and my padawan were taken prisoner and tortured. The younglings… I… believe they met a fate much… worse,_" shakenly stated Cere.

"_If you're here, and you had a padawan, where is your padawan?_" mentioned Greez.

"_My padawan, Trilla, did not leave with me,_" said Cere.

"_But why would she do that?_" inquired Greez.

"_Trilla… lost her way, and after the weeks of grueling torture, she fell to the Dark Side…,_" reluctantly admitted Cere.

"_I see. I thought you looked hurt, but don't worry Cere,_" said Greez.

"_We'll find more Jedi and kick the Empire back,_" reassuringly exclaimed Greez.

Chapter 7 - Search

"_So Cere, what exactly are we lookin' for exactly? I've never really seen a Jedi artifact, much less a Jedi for decades, at least,_" admitted Greez.

"_Okay, so here; I'll show you what one looks like,_" said Cere. Cere moves to the back of the ship and bends down to open her satchel. From the satchel, she reveals a radiant blue square with golden framing,

"_So what does that do?_" asked Greez.

"_It is a Jedi Holocron, a Jedi artifact accessible only to Jedi, which hold information that is shared from Jedi to Jedi for generations…,_" explained Cere. Cere focused herself and used the Force to access the holocron, and after a few seconds the cerulean cube grew in luminosity, and began projecting a hologram. This hologram was of Obi-Wan Kenobi, who was one of the old council members who was lost after Order 66 and was never found again. The hologram was a message to the Jedi that the Jedi were being attacked and to wait for further orders once they had recovered, though hopeful, this warning and order was useless once the Republic was wiped out.

"_So basically, we're lookin' for anything that ain't red and/or black and makes you feel bad?_" said Greez jokingly.

"_It is not that simple, Greez,_" scolded Cere.

"_Alright well, just let me know if you get any weird feelings,_" poked Greez.

They closed in on Tatooine and moved toward the sun-scorched planet ladent with the tan of its binary stars that it encircles. While it wouldn't help them find more artifacts to try to recollect what Jedi knowledge and utilities were left, it'd allow them to lie in wait while they gathered information on potential Jedi, or Jedi artifacts. They blasted into the orbit of Tatooine, and soon descended into the atmosphere and moved toward the biggest city on Tatooine, Mos Eisley. Mos Eisley had most of what you could expect of Tatooine; black market dealers, scammers, con artists, struggling store owners, and of course, the lack of moisture and the subsequent commercial value of water in such a barren planet. They landed on a landing pad and soon left the ship wherein they bought supplies and asked for information that could be provided about rumors to do with the Empire. They quickly returned to the ship, since the planet of Tatooine was known for dangerous criminals and conniving thieves. It had been a tiresome adventure for the two, and after multiple hours of being awake and alert, they both decided that they needed to rest. When the two decided to sleep, Greez slept on a cot on the ship, while Cere resulted to laying on a high-quality couch in the main hall of the ship, though she'd normally find it a little uncomfortable, she was completely out of energy and needed to rest. Cere laid down with her head against the armrest and just drifted to sleep…

_Years would pass in their hiding, and they would search everywhere for other Jedi or for the knowledge and artifacts they left behind, but to no avail. Until eventually, five years later..._

"_Hey! Hey, Cere! Get up!_" exclaimed Greez.

"_W-what, Greez? I was sleeping so good, but what do you need?_" Cere asked confusedly.

"_We got a hit; the Imperials are absolutely buzzing right now and their chatter is talking about a Jedi! I've already set course for the planet that it came from; Bracca._" insisted Greez.

"_Who are we looking for?_" questioned Cere.

"_We're lookin' for a human male with brown hair, medium height, has supposed Force powers._" answered Greez.

"_Well this is our chance, so let's take it!_" said Cere.

Chapter 8 - The Pickup

They sped towards Bracca, exhilarated after finally having a direction and direct goal, but fearful for the fate of themselves and their mission. They arrived there within minutes, and they quickly descended upon the old Republic Venator-class Cruiser that laid in metal heap in the sunken plains of the battle-scarred terrain of the planet, which was once beautiful, but was reduced to barren plains and relegated to processing scrap metal and outputting the processed recycled metal. They soon saw Tie-Fighters and ships flying all around and eventually they moved down and saw a medium height man, running across a train, and was being engaged by Stromtroopers and Scout Troopers, who he was cutting down with a blue-hued lightsaber. They closed in and gave him close air support, despite the Mantis being less than optimal for combat. Greez pulled closer and they followed the man across the train, where he quickly ran down the train, but an enemy ship pursued him, shooting at him. While he worked his way to the front of the train, the ship blasted more rounds and bombed the track, wherein the train began to derail and plummet off the railing high above the ground. The man began sliding down the train and slipped off until he hit a ramp, and Greez pulled the Mantis to the end of the ramp, where Cere sat to pull up the Jedi when he caught onto the ship's ramp. When he did, Cere closed in while he struggling to stay on, but the ship was hit by a rogue blast from the enemy, which knocked the Jedi off the ramp's ledge and to a long plummet down. The Jedi fell down the way, and collided with a floating platform, before continuing on and catching onto a floating repair droid and breaking his fall. When he landed, he immediately recovered and looked up where he saw a black Tie-Interceptor land on a platform above him. From the ship emerged a black-clad female Inquisitor with a crimson saber ignited, and she jumped off the ledge and effortlessly floated down. The Inquisitor taunted the Jedi, remarking that he had training after all, and that since he seemed like a padawan, asking him where his master was. Soon, clash of sabers began, and the Jedi fought hard against the Inquisitor, but was obviously out-paced by the Inquisitor. While they were guard-locked, Greez pulled the Mantis into position and blasted a shot at the two lightsaber wielders, which knocked them both away and gave the Jedi enough time to get up and run to the Mantis while the Inquisitor had to catch back up. The Jedi bolted inside with the Inquisitor not much behind, where Cere secured the Jedi and pushed him inside, she shot at the Inquisitor who began reflecting the bolts back at the former Jedi Master. When the bolts seemed ineffective, Cere used the distraction to close the doors to the Mantis, but with a final effort to hit Cere, the Inquisitor jumped at the door with lightsaber in hand, but failed to make it through and the door blocked the lightsaber. While they began to blast off, as a last ditch effort, the Inquisitor threw herself onto the windows of the cruiser in attempt to hinder the Jedi's escape one last time. Though she made an effort, the Mantis thrusted faster than she could grip and she was flung off the windows fell to an unknown fate. The Jedi, still pumping with adrenaline, was standing in the ship, lightsaber ignited next to Cere and Greez. Once they'd hyper spaced out, Greez told him to calm down and to turn the lightsaber off. He did, and began to ask: "_Who are you people?_"

"_I'm Cere Junda, and this is my Captain Greez Dritus. Who are you?_" responded Cere.

"_Cal. Kestis,_" said Cal.

"_Who was that back there?_" he inquired.

"_An Imperial Inquisitor; she's a Force user hunting Jedi survivors, and now that she knows who you are, she will not stop until she destroys you,_" explained Cere.

"_How do you know so much and why'd you help me?_" said Cal further questioning.

"_We track Imperial communications, we heard the Inquisitors were coming to Bracca, so we made our move,_" said Cere.

"_What's the bounty on Jedi these days,_" said Cal sarcastically.

"_Look, I get it; you've been surviving on your own for so long that it's impossible to trust anyone, and it's what's kept you alive, but this is bigger than just staying alive,_" said Cere.

"_Like what?_" questioned Cal.

"_Like rebuilding the Jedi Order,_" Cere revealed.

"_You two? Are there any more? The Council, Masters?_" said Cal with insistence.

"_They're gone,_" reluctantly said Cere.

"_So I'm all you've got?_" asked Cal.

"_You're safe for now, Cal, so go get some rest. Greez, set course for Bogano!_" exclaimed Cere.

Cal went to the cots in the back, and lied down, and fell asleep. In his sleep, he heard echoes of his past, friends he'd lost… "_Hey, wake up! You were talkin' in your sleep, weirdo._" said Greez, walking back to the cockpit. Cal got up and walked into the main hall where he saw an instrument, and felt a connection to it, where he walked towards it and picked it up. He felt the Force in it and started to play a song that the Force guided him to, where Cere walked in, looking slightly surprised.

"_I wrote that years ago,_" said Cere.

"_It's an… echo in the Force from an object,_" said Cal.

"_Not many Jedi have that skill,_" mentioned Cere.

"_How would you know that?_" asked Cal.

"_I was once a Jedi, but not anymore. You wouldn't know me, though I knew your Master, Jaro Topal; he was a true guardian of the Republic,_" Cere said.

"_Something happened to me during the purge; I survived, but my connection to the Force is damaged. If I meditate, or let my guard down, I lose control and it's like I'm back in that moment when..._" admitted Cal.

"_You survived, Cal. And you're not alone; not anymore,_" said Cere.

"_We're comin' up on our destination,_" said Greez over the intercom.

Chapter 9 - Bogano

Cere and Junda walked out of the ship after they landed and before them opened up a verdant yet rocky terrain with great altitude.

"_Bogano was discovered by a Jedi before the purge, so you won't find it on any maps,_" said Cere.

"_So what's the plan; are we gonna hide here?_" inquired Cal.

"_No, Cal, we are done hiding,_" exclaimed Cere.

"_You see that structure in the distance? That building is a Jedi Temple rumored to hold important Jedi artifact, and we need a Jedi to access the vaults,_" explained Cere.

"_So what does this artifact contain?_" asked Cal.

"_A list of young force sensitives across the galaxy; the new members of the Jedi Order,_" said Cere.

With his eyes lit up, and a new sense of determination and hope, Cal turned around, and faced the rugged road towards the Temple. His goal now in sight, and the knowledge and tools to tear apart the Empire, he lit his blue-hued lightsaber and sprinted forward; as the Fallen Order's last hope.


End file.
